Red Bull to "come out fighting" after F1 summer shutdown - Christian Horner

Hungarian Grand Prix

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Red Bull to "come out fighting" after F1 summer shutdown - Horner

Red Bull has registered two points from the last two races

Sam Hall

Tuesday 3 August 2021 08:00

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has vowed his team will "come out fighting" in the second half of the season following a measly five-point return from the last two races.

Max Verstappen recovered to ninth on Sunday in his heavily damaged Red Bull after being hit by McLaren's Lando Norris, who had been shunted from behind by Valtteri Bottas in his Mercedes, with the Finn then crashing into Sergio Perez.

The lap-one incident was Verstappen's second in as many races after his 51g crash at the British Grand Prix, leading to a 32-point advantage going into the race at Silverstone turning into an eight-point deficit.

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Reflecting on the major turnaround, Horner said: “Our luck will change. Over the length of a season it will balance itself out.

"I’m looking forward to the second half of the year but the whole team has deserved a well-earned break.

“Drivers will get a good bit of time off and believe you me, we’re going to come out fighting in the second half of this championship, so it’s going to be interesting.”

Red Bull never "absolutely in control"

Following the Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull held a 24-point margin over Mercedes in the constructors' championship, while Verstappen appeared to be comfortably in control in the drivers' standings after winning four of the previous five races.

But Red Bull has now fallen 12 points behind Mercedes, while Verstappen trails Hamilton after the seven-time champion's recovery drive to second in Hungary.

At present, the points gaps remain provisional pending a potential appeal from Aston Martin following Sebastian Vettel's disqualification.

Despite the position going into the British GP, Horner said: “At no point did we feel absolutely in control. We’ve won six races in the first half of the year.

"The races that we haven’t scored at…if you look at Azerbaijan, it wasn’t Max’s fault. Silverstone, it wasn’t Max’s fault. Here, it wasn’t Max’s fault.

"Obviously, it's been a tough couple of weeks but things can turn around very quickly as you've just seen. There's a long way to go in this championship."